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‘Canada is our own country,’ says Yazidi refugee as family adjusts to new life

It was just half a year ago that Jasim Mado and his wife Marjan were living in Turkey, having fled Iraq after Daesh attacked their hometown of Nineveh.

They never would have dreamed the only violence they’d soon be hiding from would involve snowball fights with their grandchildren.

Six months after arriving in Canada along with their sons Waleed and Saeed, their daughter-in-law Shamsah and two young grandchildren, the family is proud to call Canada home.

Their arrival in January made them the first privately sponsored Yazidi refugees to reach Canada through Project Abraham, started more than two years ago by the Mozuud Freedom Foundation, a not-for-profit human rights organization.

“Here, we are safe,” said Jasim, speaking in his native Kurdish, through his son Saadi’s translation. “Canadian people are very nice and kind. They help. No exclusion. Back home, we were not safe and we were scared.”

The project has so far brought 12 people to Canada. With continuing requests to bring more than 40 additional refugees from the Yazidi community, project manager Debbie Rose estimates Mozuud will need to raise at least $750,000. To date, the organization has raised about $100,000.

The Mado family had been separated for two years after Saadi, his brother Samir and sister Saada, escaped persecution and settled in Richmond Hill as they waited for their parents and other siblings.

Born in Iraq, Saadi Mado fled to Turkey to escape the persecution of Yazidis in Iraq.

“It was a horrible feeling because you don’t know when you’re going to be killed or if they’re going to come and capture your family,” Saadi Mado said in an interview in January. “They take women, girls, kids and they sell people.”

“It was a horrible situation they passed through. I passed through the same situation,” he said, recalling having to live in refugee camps with no protection or rights because of his religion. “It is very hard because you cannot be citizens in Turkey. You can’t work. You don’t have your right to say anything.”

Having his parents back in his life is a “huge feeling,” for Saadi.

“It was two years, I didn’t see them,” he said. “I enjoy all my time with them. My mom is my second part of my life. She helped me a lot because I’m working full time and I’m studying full time now and she prepares everything for me.”

On Wednesday, Saadi graduated as an adult student from the York Region District School Board’s continuing education program, having completed his high school requirements. It’s a path he hopes his older brother Waleed, 29, will soon follow.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get my graduation back home,” said Saadi, who works as an associate at a Home Depot warehouse. “Now, I come here and I afford everything and I face anything. We never give up.”

The Yazidis are an ancient people who have been the victim of many jihads, according to the Mozuud foundation. The most recent attacks they have suffered have come at the hands of Daesh, also known as Islamic State, ISIS or ISIL, which practises an ultra-conservative form of Islam that doesn’t recognize Yazidis as co-religionists.

The Trudeau government announced in February it planned to bring in 1,200 refugees, most of them Yazidis, by year end, an initiative costing about $28 million. It also committed to facilitating private sponsorship of Yazidi refugees, such as those arriving through Project Abraham such as the Mado family.

Jasim and Marjan say they’ve fallen in love with Canada’s weather, parks and nature, noting the many types of trees they’d never seen before arriving.

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“We feel Canada is our own country,” Jasim said. “We have our permanent residence. We have everything covered. We thank Canada’s government. We appreciate that we are refugees here. We thank all Canadians, because they are kind to refugees and newcomers.”

They’re looking forward to their first Canada Day, as the celebration will be doubly special; not only will they be spending Canada’s 150th birthday at Niagara Falls, but they’ll also be celebrating Jasim’s 55th birthday on July 1.

“It’s going to be two birthdays together,” Saadi said.

The family still faces many challenges adjusting to life in Canada, most notably, learning the language.

Jasim said he figures he could work as a cashier once his English is better. In Iraq, he owned and managed a supermarket for two decades before teaching in an elementary school for 11 years.

He became unemployed after the family fled to Turkey in August 2014, as Yazidis aren’t allowed to work there.

“We are still unstable,” Jasim said. “We want to be stable, and, then, after we learn English, we want to work. This is a very near plan of the future.”

Saadi is translating his father’s response about their plans for finding work when Jasim cuts in to add something else in Kurdish.

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